The basic guideline of knowing Japanese zodiac!

Do you know what Junishi is? If you watch lots of anime especially Japanese ghost or Japanese historical anime, I am sure that you have heard it before! Have you watched Fruits Basket? This anime is one of my most all favorites!! The reason why I am talking about this anime is because characters of this anime turn into animals, and those animals are the Japanese zodiac!!

Have you ever watched this anime and if you have, did you ever notice the meaning behind the anime???? If you didn’t understand the meaning behind the anime or haven’t watched it yet, after studying the Japanese zodiac on this page, you need to watch Fruits Basket againnnnnnnnnnn !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!\^=^/. If you haven’t watched Fruits Basket yet, I would like to encourage you to do so.

History of Junishi(Japanese Zodiac)

Junishi is zodiac in Japanese. Zodiac used to be used to know the year, month, day, the direction in China. This came to Japan in 553 A.C. Japanese government adopted as the law to use the zodiac in 690 A.C.

Zodiac is made of 12 animals. Are you going to ask me the reason why the zodiac is made up of animals? Hmmmmmm actually nobody knows the fact…..But people say when they tried to spread zodiac to common people to let them understand easily, they used animals. So common people could understand it easily and simply. Oh, are you going to ask me the reason why 12 too???

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm actually nobody knows the real truth about this either. Some people say this came from “the duodecimal system” or a year is 12 months or Jupiter’s orbital period is about 12 years…….Anyway, there are some other things I want to let you know, in Asia these 12 animals are a little bit different in every country. For example in Vietnam, Thailand, Tibet instead of Rabbit, they use cat!! How adorable!! Also, There are some more countries that use the zodiac! I personally thought the zodiac is only in Asia but I guess I was wrong. (;ﾟдﾟ)ｧ…. Except for Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Tibet (I’ve already mentioned those countries above) Mongolia, India, Korea, Taiwan, and so on…In Europe Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Turkey, Finland!━━ΣΣ(ﾟДﾟ；)━━I’m shocked! But after I researched zodiac, after a lot of research I now I understand why some European countries have zodiac too.

How did Zodiac spread around?

The reason why they have zodiac is because back then… a long time ago…like long long time ago! Like…(⌒_⌒; Okay! B.C 139 or B.C 1000 hey, it’s too old once again! Nobody knows specific dates! Okay now time to make you think and wonder, how many of you have ever heard of Silk Road? Yes, that is right there are roads that are actually called Silk Road. Had enough of racking your brain? Let me explain to you why they are called Silk Road! Silk Road was used to import and export cultures, religions, and many other things between Europe, China, and the West Asian countries. As you see the name of Silk Road you would automatically think the road is made of silk or at least appears to look like silk, however, maybe we should all think again. Here is the story behind the name, hang on to your seats and let’s take a ride on the History Express.

China used to make silk and export it to Europe, Roman Empire, India, and to West Asian countries. So now with this little bit of information you, you can now see the reason why some European countries have the zodiac! Did I explain good enough???o(･_･= ･_･)o To learn other cultures is so fun for me. I can get to know many things that I don’t know yet. Plus when I understand the background of things and how they connect to other incidents or to other countries, I find out that just maybe this world isn’t as big as we think it is!

It is so exciting to learn that even though different parts of parts of the world and different cultures there are things that we have in common. When that moment, I feel like I have grown up and maybe even became a little wiser! Do you know what I mean??^^Anyway since I’m interested in Japanese culture, I posted on Junishi map as English, Japanese, and Japanese pronunciation below. I hope this will help you to understand!

Japanese Zodiac animals

There are 12 animals. Let’s learn it!

English

Japanese Pronunciation

Japanese

Mouse

Nezumi

ねずみ

Ox

Ushi

うし

Tiger

Tora

とら

Rabbit

Usagi

うさぎ

Dragon

Ryu-

りゅう

Snake

Hebi

へび

Horse

Uma

うま

Sheep

Hitsuji

ひつじ

Monkey

Saru

さる

Cook

Niwatori

にわとり

Dog

Inu

いぬ

Boar

Inoshishi

いのしし

Japanese Zodiac calendar

This is very simple to understand how Japanese Zodiac goes! As you see the table above, the order of Japanese Zodiac repeats over and over.

I will show you an example of how Japanese Zodiac goes around!

Year

Japanese Zodiac

1960

Mouse

1961

Ox

1962

Tiger

1963

Rabbit

1964

Dragon

1965

Snake

1966

Horse

1967

Sheep

1968

Monkey

1969

Cook

1970

Dog

1971

Boar

1972

Mouse

1973

Ox

1974

Tiger

1975

Rabbit

1976

Dragon

1977

Snake

1978

Horse

1979

Sheep

1980

Monkey

1981

Cook

1982

Dog

1983

Boar

1984

Mouse

1985

Ox

1986

Tiger

1987

Rabbit

1988

Dragon

1989

Snake

1990

Horse

1991

Sheep

1992

Monkey

1993

Cook

1994

Dog

1995

Boar

1996

Mouse

1997

Ox

1998

Tiger

1999

Rabbit

2000

Dragon

2001

Snake

2002

Horse

2003

Sheep

2004

Monkey

2005

Cook

2006

Dog

2007

Boar

2008

Mouse

2009

Ox

2010

Tiger

2011

Rabbit

2012

Dragon

2013

Snake

2014

Horse

2015

Sheep

2016

Monkey

2017

Cook

2018

Dog

2019

Boar

2020

Mouse

2021

Ox

2022

Tiger

2023

Rabbit

2024

Dragon

2025

Snake

2026

Horse

2027

Sheep

2028

Monkey

2029

Cook

2030

Dog

2031

Boar

See? It is easy to understand it, right? ∩(ﾟ∀ﾟ∩) Did you find your year’s animal?

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Japanese Zodiac signs(Bonji/梵字)

Each Zodiac has signs. Those sings are Brahmic scripts. Brahmic scripts is from Hinduism. This scripts came to japan with Buddhism.

It is said that as we are born, the Zodiac and the Buddha to protect you are decided in the Buddhist world. The Buddha will be a guardian for you! Let’s see which guardian of Buddha you belong to!

Here is the list of Japanese Zodiac signs!

Zodiac sign of mouse

This sign represents from Senju Kanzeon Bosatsu(千手観世音菩薩）. This sign is pronounced hriiH(Kiri-ku in Japanese pronunciation).

Zodiac sign of ox and tiger

This sign represents from Kokuuzou Bosatsu(虚空蔵菩薩). This sign is pronounced Trâḥ(Tara-ku in Japanese pronunciation).

Zodiac sign of Rabbit

This sign represents from Monju Bosatsu(文殊菩薩). This sign is pronounced maM(Man in Japanese pronunciation).

Zodiac sign of dragon and snake

This sign represents from Fugen Bosatsu(普賢菩薩). This sign is pronounced aM(An in Japanese pronunciation).

Zodiac sign of horse

This sign represents from Seishi Bosatsu(勢至菩薩). This sign is pronounced saH(Saku in Japanese pronunciation).

Zodiac sign of sheep and monkey

This sign represents from Dainichi Nyorai(大日如来). This sign is pronounced vaṃ(Ban in Japanese pronunciation).

Zodiac sign of cook

This sign represents from Fudou Myouou(不動明王). This sign is pronounced hāṃ(Ka-n in Japanese pronunciation).

Zodiac sign of dog and boar

This sign represents from Amida Nyorai(阿弥陀如来). This sign is pronounced hriiH(Kiri-ku in Japanese pronunciation). This sign is as same as the mouse but the guardian of Buddha is different.

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Konnichiwa! ━━ヽ(*ﾟ∀ﾟ)ﾉ I'm Mishi. My passion towards Japan got me to create this blog. As I learn Japanese culture, I want to share the world of Japan with you! Yoroshiku Onegai Shimasu(nice to meet you)! ヽ(=ﾟωﾟ)人(ﾟωﾟ=)ﾉ